The steroid dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is believed to stimulate various biological responses including (i) inducing the synthesis of various thermogenic enzymes which are effective for regulating metabolism and thereby promoting weight control without affecting caloric intake, and (ii) inducing an increase in the production of the sex hormones androgen and estrogen.
The ability of DHEA to promote weight control is believed to be mediated through enhanced thermogenesis (conversion of foodstuffs to heat energy rather than chemical energy such as ATP and/or triacylglycerides). The thermogenic effect mediated by DHEA is believed to result from the ability of DHEA to stimulate the synthesis of thermogenic enzymes including mitochondrial glycerol 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (G3P-DH) and cytosolic malic enzyme (ME). Such enzymes tend to reduce the efficiency of energy metabolism within the body.
Unfortunately, DHEA is generally considered to be ineffective as a weight controlling therapeutic agent because the dosage necessary to achieve weight control frequently produces significant adverse side-effects including substantial increases in the concentration of sex hormones.
Accordingly, a therapeutic agent possessing the weight control characteristic of DHEA without the adverse side-effect of stimulating the synthesis of sex hormones would be extremely useful. In addition, the effectiveness of such a therapeutic agent could be significantly enhanced if the agent possessed an increased weight control activity relative to DHEA.